In a look back at last November’s recall of romaine lettuce, the FDA says that although “one farm cannot explain the entire outbreak,” it is now able to identify potential sources of E. coli contamination. The adoption of technology that can track foods from field to consumer “is a critical piece of our ability to protect the public,” FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement on Wednesday. “We’ll continue to work with industry to explore better ways to assure quick, accurate, and easy access to traceability information.”
The FDA has begun surveillance testing of romaine lettuce to help avert a new outbreak of foodborne illness, said Gottlieb. “If samples are found to be contaminated, the FDA will follow up with the responsible farms and firms to assure that they remove contaminated products from the market. The agency will also work with responsible farms to determine issues and identify steps they can put in place to prevent contamination in the future.”
Investigators working on the November outbreak matched the E. coli strain involved with sediment in an irrigation reservoir near Santa Maria, California. The FDA believes the romaine became contaminated when harvested lettuce came into contact with water from the reservoir. “The water from the reservoir doesn’t explain how lettuce grown on other ranches or farms identified by traceback may have been contaminated. So this one farm cannot explain the entire outbreak.” The agency is looking into other possible routes of contamination.
“The FDA continues to recommend that leafy green growers, buyer/shippers, and retailers be able to trace product back to the specific source in real time and make information about the source, such as harvest date and standardized growing regions, readily available for consumers on either packaging or point of sale signs, or by other means,” said Gottlieb.